Police Chief’s Award Recognizes Officers for Careers, Contributions

Fort Lee Police Chief Thomas O. Ripoli created his “Chief’s Award” shortly after he took over the duties of Fort Lee Police Chief in 2004. The monthly award honors individual officers for their years of commitment to the department, as well as their outstanding contributions to the community. Each month, one administrative award is issued to a member of the Fort Lee Police Department. For February, Det. Frank Pantaleo is the recipient of the Chief’s Award.

“I pick an officer who has time on the job,” Ripoli said. “I look at his awards, his work ethic, sick time, his loyalty to the town and the extra that he does. It’s a hard decision honestly, because there are a lot of candidates, and you try to pick from that. And you miss people along the way also.”

Ripoli said he picks one administrative officer a year among the recipients. In January the award went to Captain Roy Bortolus.

Pantaleo joined the Fort Lee Police Department in January 1995 and worked on every shift in the patrol division. He is a past member of the emergency services unit, attending the Tactical Operations School in Yonkers in 1996.

Pantaleo served in the traffic division and was trained as a certified traffic engineer by Rutgers University and a crash investigator and reconstructionist by Northwestern University.

In 2002, Pantaleo was assigned to his current rank of Detective. Since then, he has been trained as a crime scene investigator by the Taylor Group and been trained in advanced interview and interrogation, identity theft, fraud, rape & sex crimes and alcoholic beverage control laws. He is also a trained hostage negotiator.

Pantaleo’s commendations and citations include medals for Meritorious Unit Valor and Meritorious Service. He also received a medal for Meritorious Valor for the apprehension of two suspects involved in an armed robbery and theft of over $300,000 from an Englewood Cliffs car dealership.

Pantaleo is an active member of Fort Lee PBA local #245, serving as past secretary and vice president. He is currently the state delegate for the local.

Ripoli called the award “a career thing,” saying his monthly decision is not necessarily based on something the chosen officer did in a particular month.

“It’s a monthly award, but honoring him that month for his career,” Ripoli said. “He’s a diligent worker, who’s a good family man. He’s loyal. He’s obviously well liked in the department, and he’s a delegate for the union. And he has a lot of good qualities. He’s been around a while and done a lot of good things.”

Ripoli said Pantaleo’s most important asset as far as the Fort Lee Police Department is concerned is his versatility.

“I can put him in a lot of different positions, and he can handle the job,” Ripoli said. “I can put him anywhere in the detective bureau and anywhere in the patrol division, and he’d be valuable there. That’s probably his biggest quality.”

Pantaleo grew up in the area, living in Cliffside Park and Fort Lee. Serving in the U.S. Marine Corps., he was involved in the successful evacuation of the American Embassy in Lebanon in 1998. He is also a veteran of the Persian Gulf War.